How to Create a Living Galaxy Photo Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Creating stars, galaxies, and nebulas requires a unique set of techniques, and in this tutorial, we are going to be taking a quick look at a slew of different effects, ultimately creating a being made of the stars themselves!

Like nebulas, we are going to be keeping everything very loose and freeform; it's all about going with the flow with this one! We are going to do a whole lot of playing with different layer modes and experimenting with the flow of shadows and light, seeing what shapes naturally form as we go.

1. How to Create a Star Field (Optional)

First, we will start by preparing our space environment! For the base, I have supplied a pre-painted nebula-like texture that's free to use anytime, anywhere, but also want to walk you through how to create a star field, which is the first step to creating many space-themed images.

Step 1

Create a new portrait style canvas.

Create a Color Fill layer set to a dark blue #0e101f.

Create a New Layer filled with black, setting it to Screen.

Step 2

Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise.

Noise Settings

Amount: 50%

Distribution: Gaussian

Monochromatic: Checked

Step 3

Blur the noise with Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Gaussian Blur Settings

Radius: 0.8 px

Step 4

Open up Image > Adjustments > Levels and slide the three toggles around until you get the desired result. There is no one set of settings, but here's mine:

Levels Settings

Input Levels: 110, 2, and 197

You can also further adjust the stars using Curves.

Step 5 (Optional)

If you want to create bigger stars, you can paint them in by hand using a hard round Brush, or you can Duplicate your current star layer and then enlarge the duplicate.

2. How to Turn a Texture Into a Background

Next, we will be adding our space texture! Unlike with the stars, I sadly do not have a set method on how to paint nebulas and space backgrounds to share with everyone, but I do have a pre-painted texture to share!

Curves Settings

Step 2

Color Lookup Settings

Step 3

Color Lookup Settings

3DLUT: Fall Colors

Layer Mask: Mask on the lower right corner.

Step 4

Create a third Color Lookup layer.

Color Lookup Settings

3DLUT: Late Sunset

Opacity: 41%

Step 5

Create a Selective Color adjustment layer. While you can adjust multiple colors using the same Selective Color layer, I like to dedicate a new selective color layer for each color to give myself more control!

Selective Color Settings

Colors: Blues

Cyan: +40%

Magenta: -2%

Yellow: +18%

Blacks: +27%

Step 6

Create a second Selective Color adjustment layer.

Selective Color Settings

Colors: Reds

Cyan: -100%

Magenta: +1%

Yellow: +41%

Step 7

Create a third Selective Color adjustment layer.

Selective Color Settings

Colors: Magentas

Blacks: +100%

Step 8

Create a fourth Selective Color adjustment layer.

Selective Color Settings

Colors: Cyans

Cyan: +100%

Magenta: -100%

Yellow: +100%

Blacks: +50%

Group all layers together into a group marked "CC" or "Color Correction" and Lock the group.

4. How to Create a Living Galaxy Photo Effect

Now, on to our main event: the man made out of stars! For this, you will have to have a good handle on both layer masks and layer modes.

I highly recommend keeping your groups named and organized in this step as there are quite a few!

Step 1

Download, place and extract our model using your preferred method. Mine is the Pen Tool!